Always There
by nolita.daydream
Summary: five years after the war and it seems that everyone has someone but Toph. Alone and heartbroken, she's about to lose herself. But could her best friend be the one to save her? Tokka. much better than the summary seems.
1. The Plan

A Tokka Story. Set 5 years after the war. Toph and aang are 17, Sokka and Zuko are 21, Mai and Katara are 19.

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Toph held the invitation in her hand. Katara had read the context to her when she had first received it. _You are formally invited to the Wedding of Fire Lord Zuko and Mai Juai Long on the eve of the Summer Solstice._

It was delicate paper with silk stitched around the edges. Just fancy enough for the Fire Lord. Katara and Tai Lee were asked to be bride's maids for Mai whilst Aang is the best man.

Toph hated weddings. She scrunched up the invitation and threw it across the room. Now in the Fire Nation three days before the ceremony she was angry. In fact she hated anything to do with love right now. She knew that when she was younger she had a tomboyish attitude and never really expressed any interest in romance, but now that she was older, she felt sad and alone. She was seventeen and had never been kissed. While all her friends were either in a relationship like Aang and Katara or Zuko and Mai or had at least been in one like Sokka. Now that Sokka was no longer with Suki, Toph had thought about acting on her feelings towards him. He had always been the one to pick her up when she was down, literally and not literally. He was her best friend and she was in love with him. If she could trust anyone it was him. There had been times when she thought he had felt the same towards her but she just couldn't be sure.

Toph was just tired of being the last one alone. But more than that she was ashamed of her lack of experience. Sometimes she felt like she was the only virgin over sixteen in the world. That's why this wedding was a wake up call. Or more than that. It was an opportunity to act on everything. To solve all of her problems.

Tonight she would lose her virginity to Sokka.

Everything was planned out. Earlier that day she had told Sokka to come by her room when it was late, telling him she needed to talk to him about something. But Toph knew she was never very good with verbally expressing her feelings so she decided to act on it the only way she knows how. Physically.

In her mind it sounded so ridiculous it could work. She sat on her bed wearing nothing but a robe her skin glowing in the moon light. Her palms were sweating with nerves and her heart raced while she waited. He would be here any minute now. And then after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, there was a gentle knock on the door.

"Toph?" Sokka's voice said. He pushed open the door and Toph felt him step inside. She didn't think it was possible but her began to beat even faster. "Toph are you okay? You sounded kind of urgent when you spoke to me earlier."

"Can you shut the door behind you?" Toph asked in a more calm tone than she felt but she didn't take another breath until she heard the slid click of the door shutting. "Toph what's all this about?" Sokka said as he walked towards her. Toph met him halfway in the centre of the room and placed her hands gently on his chest. "shhh" she whispered and she placed a finger in front of his lips.

"Toph what-?" he stopped mid sentence when he saw what she was doing. Taking a few steps back from him where Sokka was able to see a full view of her body, Toph took another deep breath and held her head high. Then, with a slight tug of the tassle, her robe fell to the floor.

She stood there before him, completely naked her heart pounding against her chest. Sokka frozen in complete shock stood there staring at his best friends naked body lost for words. Then after the sudden realisation kicked in he turned his head away and said, "Toph what are you doing?" his tone was disapproving and awkward. With all the confidence she could muster, she walked closer towards him. She could feel his heart quicken with each step she took until finally Toph closed the gap between them. She pressed her chest against his and turned his face towards hers. Then, she bravely lent in for a kiss, only to have him turn his head away.

"Toph stop. This isn't you." She could hear the disappointment in his voice.

"Sokka, please. I'm tired of being all alone. Tired of being left out." her voice was shaky now. "You're the only one I trust."

She felt Sokka's eyes on her face. He grabbed her wrists from his face and took a step away from Toph whilst adverting his eyes once again.

"Sokka…" she felt tears well in her eyes. "Sokka please?" She felt him walk away back towards the door. "Sokka wait…I-I love you." She felt him halt for a moment with his hand on the doorknob. "Sokka?" She yelled at him in a broken sob. Her tears ran freely now. She felt so stupid and humiliated.

"I won't tell anyone." He said before she heard the soft thud of the door closing, no one else on her side of it.

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I had to make up a last name for Mai :s

I hope you like it. Theres much more to come so please review :)


	2. A Meeting of Interest

Thank you to everyone who reviewed. It's good to know that people are reading :)

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The following day Toph avoided Sokka at all costs.

When she felt him walking her way, she'd go the other direction just to evade the awkwardness of the situation. Toph had never been more humiliated in her life. As well as that, she was angry. With him and herself. She had done the most daring thing she had ever done and come out broken hearted. She was sure it would work she had _thrown_ herself at him and he rejected her. How could he? She thought maybe, just maybe he had felt the same way about her. But clearly she had been wrong. He didn't love her. He didn't care about her at all. And now she wasn't sure she could ever look him in the eye again.

By late afternoon it had all become to frustrating to handle. Toph just couldn't stand constantly being on alert for Sokka's footsteps. It was driving her insane.

So to get away from it all, she decided to wander around the city.

Only once had Toph felt so many people around her and that was when she shortly resided in Ba Sing Se. it seemed that the Fire Nation Capitol was just as busy.

It was icredibly annoying trying to navigate her way through the large crowds of people. constantly bumping shoulder with people and having her feet treded on, Toph decided to make her way back to the palace. What was there to do here anyway?

Then as she turned around she hit something front on and fell towards the ground. There was a loud thumping around her like pebbles falling to the ground. Then just as quickly as she fell, she was heaved up again by a hand.

"you'd want to be careful where you fall here. A few too many people to stand on you I think." Said a voice infront of her. He sounded young. Around the same age as Sokka. The man lead her off to the side away from the crowd.

"Hi, I'm Jin by the way."  
Toph scrunched her face, "I didn't need you're help thank you. Or the knock over thankyou."

"Sorry, well you were the one walking into oncoming traffic. I think I should at least get a 'thank you'."

Toph snorted, "you were the one who made me fall down. I don't think so." She was getting annoyed now. "And why did you bother helping me up anyway?" normally she would have just walked away from this kind of situation, however today she was sad and angry.

"Well because I didn't want to see a pretty young woman get trampled obviously." He smiled at her. Toph felt herself blush at being called pretty. Only once had she been called pretty and that was by Katara.

"And, well, I noticed that you're blind." At that comment Toph's blush disappeared only to be replaced by the redness of rage.

Not wanting to cause a fight however, Toph simply turned to leave muttering to herself.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you." The man called after her.

Toph simply called back "okay." And continued walking. Then she kicked something with her foot. She bent down to pick it up. It was round and firm in most places but soft in others. She then realised that it was an apple. There were dozens around her. That must have been what she heard when she fell.

"Did I make you drop these?" she asked the man walking back towards him.

"Uh yeah actually."

"I'm sorry. I'll pay for them if you want?" she said feeling guilty now.

"What? Oh no it's fine. Really." He must have seen the remorseful look on Tophs face because he continued. "if it makes you feel any better, they weren't mine."

"Not really. I still cost someone a meal." She said.

"No its really okay. I was just delivering them my ship to export them."

Toph pulled a puzzled face. "Export them?"

"Yeah, I was going to take them to the Earth Kingdom and sell them. That's what I do."

"Oh" Toph said. "Now I feel really bad."

"No its okay really. I have plenty of other stuff to sell. Really its no big deal."

Toph still didn't feel better about the whole thing and it must have shown on her face,

"I'll tell you what, if I ever run into you again, hopefully not quite as literally as this time, you can repay me with a favour or something? Deal?"

Toph smiled. "Yeah ok. Well I guess I'd better be going."

"I never did catch your name." Jin said to her.

"Its Toph." She replied. She could feel him smile back at her.

"Pretty name for a pretty girl." Toph felt the blush creep back onto her cheeks.

"well bye." She said wanting to leave so he didn't see her red face.

"Bye."

Toph kept track of his footsteps as the two departed until she felt him get jumbled up in the crowd.

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I know there wasn't much Tokka in this chapter but believe me, this chapter is VERY important. and if i get enough reviews i might just post the next chapter really soon. i'm really excited about it. it is definitely the most eventful and much longer than the previous.

So review! :D


	3. Lust and Jealousy

my best chapter

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The wedding ceremony took place in the palace garden. It was an extravagant ceremony consisting of only the finest of things. It happened at sunset whilst the alter was woven in fire lilies. Katara described Mai's dress as a red silk flowing gown with many layers to it but wasn't too girly since it was Mai. It was customary for the bride to wear a red dress in the fire nation. The ceremony was rather fast and before long it was time for the reception. This was in the grand ball room. Tables and chairs were set up with centre pieces and tablecloths. They were positioned around the profligate dance floor where almost everyone was with their dance partner. Zuko and Mai, were seated above everyone else at a grand table with a fire dancing wildly behind them.

Toph sat at a table alone, a drink in her hand. Aang and Katara were out on the dancefloor. Toph could feel Aang spinning her and their laughter echoed to her ears. She felt so alone. It seemed that everyone had someone except for her. Well her and Sokka. She hadn't spoken to him since that day he'd walked away from her. She didn't want to. It didn't seem like Sokka told anyone about that what had happened. No one had said said anything to her and it seemed no one noticed the rift between her and Sokka.

"Excuse me," Toph felt someone tap her shoulder and turned towards their direction.

"Yeah?" she said, annoyed that someone was bothering her.

"Well, I was just wondering if you'd like to dance? You can consider it payback for yesterday." Toph should have known from his voice, but she wasn't too familiar with it.

"Jin!" she said excitedly. She wasn't annoyed he had bothered her anymore.

"Hey glad to see you again." he said.

"Yeah you too. What are you doing here?"

"I sometimes transport Fire Nation Imports. As a public servant, I got an invite. So about that dance…?"

"Umm yeah sure. I'd love to." She felt a blush creep up into her cheeks like it had yesterday. Holding out her hand for Jin to take, she rose from her chair, glad to leave the table. Together they walked out onto the crowded floor, Toph slightly nervous. She had never really danced before. Jin must have noticed she was tense.  
"Just relax." He said "Here, put your hand on my shoulder." As he said it he lifted Toph's arm and positioned it for her. Toph became slightly annoyed by this, but she quickly remembered Katara's advice and pushed it out of her mind.

_Be charming. Be _nice. That's exactly how she would be tonight. For one night it couldn't hurt. Especially with Jin, a guy who actually _liked _her. He thought she was pretty. It would be nice to be treated this way.

Jin placed his hand on her hip and one in his hand and together they rocked back and forth on the dance floor, Jin leading her in small steps in a circle.

Toph liked this. She didn't think she would but in truth it was… nice. But the best thing was that Jin had singled her out. Out of all the pretty girls here tonight he had chosen her. She couldn't remember the last time she had been picked first out of so many other people. Had she ever? Sure she had been the Earth Rumble Six champion, but that was no where near the same as this. She had to work to get where she had been then. But this was just easy. Easy because she didn't have to be any better than she already was. Jin liked her the way she was.

It could have been because she was caught up in the moment, but Toph had completely distracted herself from everything around her. It was so hard to tell what exactly was happening because of her stupid heels, but Toph could have sworn that she felt him across the other side of the room. She couldn't tell if he was looking at her, but he was definitely facing her way and he was standing still. Was Sokka _watching _her? Why would he even care? It's not like he wanted to dance with her. It's not like he liked her. He had made that very clear.

So why was he watching her? Toph felt a smug smile upon her face. Could she be making him jealous? Deciding to be daring, she moved closer to Jin and lowered her head onto his chest. She felt Jin stop for a second and his heart fluttered. Apparently he hadn't thought she would do that. They swayed like this for about five minutes in silence before Jin spoke.

"Hey, do you want to get out of here? This is all just so formal, you know?"

Toph was taken aback. She completely agreed with him. This definitely was not her scene but she was enjoying dancing with Jin and making Sokka jealous. But then again, if she left with him Sokka could get even more jealous.

"Umm," she flustered. "Yeah. Yeah sure. Why not?"  
"Great." He smiled. "I'll just go get your jacket and then we can leave." Jin's footsteps disappeared in the crowd. Toph tucked a lose hair behind her ear and smiled to herself. She made her way over to one of the many grand doors and waited for Jin to return. She would never admit it out loud but she felt excited by this. Suddenly, she felt footsteps behind her. Sokka. He was walking over to her.

"Where are you going?" he said bluntly.

"Well, hello to you too Snoozles." Toph replied.

"Toph, are you leaving with some guy you just met?" He asked. He was jealous.

"No. Of course not Sokka. How stupid do you think I am?" She put on a smug voice. "We met _yesterday_." This was too perfect. Toph could feel Sokka's annoyance bubbling inside of him. His whole body was tense with anger.

"What? Toph, don't do something stupid just to get back at me." His voice sounded angry too.

"This has nothing to do with you Sokka." She said, even though both of them knew this wasn't true. "Why do you care anyway? You've made your feelings about me perfectly clear."

Sokka sighed. "Toph please don't do anything you'll regret." He pleaded.

Toph was getting angry now. "I can do what ever I want, Sokka. You didn't want me and now I've found someone who does. You have no say in how I run my life!"

"Toph, I just don't want to see you get hurt." He said. Toph didn't need to see that his eyebrows were furrowed in concern.

"Well guess what Sokka? You already made that happen." Just as she said it, she felt Jin walking towards her. Sokka, lost for words, watched at Toph left the ballroom with her arm hooked in a stranger's.

* * *

Toph didn't really want anything to happen tonight. All she was planning on doing was walking on the beach with Jin. But Sokka didn't know that. She was furious at him. First for rejecting her, and then for telling her what she could and could not do. He had lost any right he had in having a say in her life when he walked out the bedroom door.

The sand beneath her toes was cold but the rest of her body was warm, walking arm in arm with Jin. They had left the party through a back way and walked straight down towards the beach. Although Toph couldn't see too clearly because of the sand, it was better than wearing those stupid heels. She didn't mind the sand too much anyway because of the situation. She was alone with a guy. A guy who thought she was pretty and liked her. She had never felt so special.

"So you're a pretty powerful bender I hear?" Jin said.  
"Who told you that?" Toph asked back.

"Your friend Aang told me when I went to get your jacket. Can you really bend metal?"

Toph blushed. No one had ever been so interested in her bending.

"Yeah, actually."

"That's amazing. I don't think there would be anyone else in the world that could do that." Toph could feel him smiling at her and she smiled back.

"So are you a bender?" she asked him.

"Me? No. Too bad though, because I've always thought bending was the best thing ever. When I was a kid, I used to go out to the markets where the fire bending entertainers would perform and I used to envy them so much. But I'm ok with what I've got now."

"I like that. Hearing about stuff you like, I mean." Toph said, "I like getting to know you."

"Tell me something about you then, so we're both getting to know each other."

Toph thought for a moment. She didn't really want to say anything to personal but she didn't want to not say anything.

"I learnt to earth bend from Badger Moles." She said. That was good. She didn't go into specifics buts she still shared with him.

"Badger Moles? Wow that's incredible. How did that work?"

"Well they were blind like me. So I learnt to be like them and use the earth as a guide. After all without my bending, I really am blind."

"Wow. You are…You are really just amazing, you know that?"

This time Toph felt her face burn hot. There was no way Jin wouldn't notice it. He laughed slightly but before Toph could make any kind of remark, Jin pressed his lips against hers. Toph was in complete shock. She had never been kissed before and didn't know what to do. But it seemed her body did. Before long her lips began to kiss back. This was nice. Jin placed his hand on her hip and pulled Toph closer to him. He pushed his tongue into her mouth and deepened the kiss but Toph was confused about how to proceed. But before she even thought of what to do, Jin broke apart he kiss. Once the pair had both caught their breath Jim said, "My ship is right over there on the docks. Do you want to come see it?"

Toph hadn't expected him to be so forward. She didn't want him to get the wrong idea but she supposed if things did start to lead somewhere she could just break it off. And after all he could just want to show her his ship.

"Yeah ok." She smiled as he led her onto the docks.

"Here it is." They stopped at the end of the docks right in front of Jin's ship. Jin jumped across the gap between the dock and the ship and balanced a plank between them for Toph to walk across. Once on the deck, Toph could feel the full size of the ship. It was the biggest wooden ship she had ever been aboard. Not as large as a Fire Nation battle ship but much larger than a regular fishing boat.

"This is pretty big. Do you run it all by yourself?" she asked.

"Sure do. It's not too hard to do it single-handedly and it keeps me busy between voyages." Jin grabbed Toph's hand, "Here, I'll show you the below deck."

He pulled her along, travelling down stairs until they were in a bunker. He then lead her into a room that Toph could feel contained not much else but a bed.

Jin sat down on it, and still holding Toph's hand, made her sit down too.

"I really like you Toph." he said. She could tell he was waiting for a reply.

"I really like you too Jin." She smiled nervously at him. Again, Jin leaned in and kissed her. Toph kissed back and after about a minute, Jin began gently pushing her into a laying position and was on top of her. Toph was starting to get a little worried. She didn't want to lead him on, but she knew that people would just kiss this way sometimes. Hopefully that's all Jin had in mind. After a few minutes Toph was really starting to enjoy kissing. She felt Jin holding her neck as they kissed and it travelled up into her hair. There were too many pins in it from Katara's hour of styling to let it out so Jin moved his hand back down to her neck. But then after a moment it kept travelling down and before Toph knew it, it was on her breast. She opened her eyes but continued to kiss Jin, unsure whether to stop or not. His fingers grazed her nipple over the material of her dress. He began kissing her neck, his hand still on her breast, now squeezing it. Then with one hand still on her neck, the other on her chest moved down to her hip and touched her bare thigh. How was her thigh now bare? Toph then noticed Jin had been using his knee to pull up her dress. Just as she realised this she felt something hard on her hip. She had to stop this now.

"Jin," she said, breaking the kiss, "I'm sorry I gave you the wrong idea but I don't want to do this."

Jin opened his eyes and just looked at her, and then he chuckled. "What? Come on Toph, you'll like it." And just like that he went back to touching her thigh and kissing her neck.

"No, Jin. Stop it." He didn't. Instead Toph felt his hand go higher up her thigh. She tried to push his hand away, "Jin, I said stop!" She was panicking. Trapped under his weight, Toph became frightfully aware that she had nothing to bend. Everything in the ship was either wooden or some kind of material. There was no earth. No metal. She began to struggle but was unable to break free.

"Toph, cut it out." Jin said sounding annoyed.

"Get off me!" Toph cried. She had never been so frightened in her life.

"Toph just shut up and enjoy it." Jin's hand was right between her legs now. All that separated him from her was her underwear. She felt him tugging at them trying to get them down.

"Stop it!" Toph cried again. "Help me! Someone help!" but she knew no one would be able to hear her. She grabbed his arm and tried to pull it away from her but Jin was just so much stronger than her. She felt tears prickle her eyes and began to hyperventilate. Out of some miraculous thought, Jin lifted himself up enough for Toph to kick him hard in the stomach. He cried out in pain.

"Argh, you bitch." Toph seized her moment and rolled off the bed, and began crawling along the floor, trying to get to her feet. But before she even reached the door she felt a strong pull at her dress and fell back to the floor.

"Where the fuck do you think you're going?" Jin was angry now. Toph tried to scramble away after kicking him in the jaw but he recovered almost instantly and seized her again. He pulled himself over to her and again Toph was crushed under his weight, unable to move. Jin held her hands together with one hand and used the other to hitch up her dress. He pushed his knee between her legs and forced them apart. Toph was crying freely now. She was utterly terrified and there was nothing she could do. She shut her eyes and tried to block out what was happening to her.

"No." she sobbed. "please don't." And then, thinking she had imagined it, Jin's weighed was forced off of her. Had he stopped? She opened her eyes and sat up, gladder than she had ever been in her life to feel his presence. Sokka. He was standing over Jin holding him by the shirt. He must have thrown him off of Toph. The two men wrestled each other to the ground. Sokka, faster, dodged a punch from Jin and quickly returned it right in his face. Then unbeknown to Toph that he had been carrying it, Sokka pulled out his Space Sword and pointed it at Jin's throat. Jin froze.

"Hey, she was asking for it man."

"If I could hear her say stop, then why couldn't you?" Sokka was more enraged than he had ever been. His body was shaking all over from rage.

Jin laughed, "She wanted it."

It happened so quick that Toph almost missed it. Sokka swung his fist so hard into Jin's head that Jin was left lying on the ground, unconscious.

It was a moment before Sokka returned his attention to Toph. Her face still tear stained, she hid her face in her knees and began cryng again. She had never been so ashamed. Sokka didn't say anything. Instead he just wrapped his arms around her back and under her knees and picked her up, carrying her like he used to, years ago when her feet were burned. Toph buried her face in the crook of his neck and continued to cry as Sokka carried her back onto the docks.

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i'm actually not sure where to go from here, so i'm very open to suggestion. so if you liked it and want to read more please PLEASE review with your ideas or just let me know what you thought about this chapter


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